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Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Organization Shmorganization

I'm not really the organizer in our household. Heck, I'm hardly the "cleaner" (although when I get the urge, watch OUT! I do it to the nines, thanks to the Cinderella-sans-wicked-step-relatives upbringing my mother imparted on us). Dave prefers things organized, but not museum-like or dust-free, just pile-less...and it's not that I don't. I'm just not great at it.

So, what better way to waste time (and pre-baby time, at that! Yes, I started this post before Hadley arrived...heck, at this point I thought he MUST be a girl!) than to take a fun Better Homes and Gardens quiz about my organization personality. Of course, the description is pretty dead-on:

I'm not sure the last time I "planned" a "party" (although I'd love to do that...I had to reel myself back in when I started planning our upcoming baptism get-together; gonna be very low-key with very few folks), but the "key traits" part of it is accurate. I realized that a lot of my decorating involves the "collector" part of this description. While I'm by no means a hoarder, I've got a kazillion antique items that I love to use to decorate. I'd say that I have a "collection" of various items, be they antique glass (especially milk bottles...yep, I have a soft spot for milk in glass bottles, but I particularly like to make the connection to my ancestral family's old farm - I do happen upon "Homestead Farms" bottles on occasion, and that's my bloodline!), cake plates, McCoy pottery (my maiden name, so, y'know), I also suddenly thought, "Well, that's not really very simple. Why do I have this stuff, and why do I show it off the way that I do?"

Easily sidetracked? Yes, please.

Anyhoo, while Dave and I strive to live simply and attempt to simplify as much as possible - especially now that the baby's here! - the antique items I have hanging around are ones that mean something to me. No need to clutter the joint up with things you don't love. But, when it comes to decorating, I tend to put out "vignettes" (a sweet, professional way of saying "clumps") of stuff. I would like to work on how to implement a cleaner way of decorating with all these, erm, clumps. We'll see how I do with the upcoming

What I particularly like about this quiz (especially when searching for the energy and motivation I'm craving) is the fact that you can click "Get Guide Now" and receive plenty of organizational suggestions for your "personality". In my case, they simplify (there's that word again) the tasks and provide suggestions - some of which I already use.

Once a season (okay, a couple times a year - but it was about four during 2011-2012 thanks to Operation Maternity Clothes), I go through my clothes and donate what I'm not wearing, as well as switch out the seasons and store the non-season items. I also use books in decorating, and when placing books on bookshelves, I organize them but also switch their directions to add interest. And, no; there's no Dewey Decimal System in place. Let's just say that Beatles go with Beatles (there are a lot of those, so they get stuck together), old movie stars live with old movie stars, self-help books all co-exist, etc.; sometimes I go crazy and organize by color, though. Maybe because I can't do something so *crazy* at my work libraries.

So, if you're bored (ah, the luxury of time!), feel free to take the quiz and let me know what your personality style is. It'll be neat to see if anyone's as disorganizedscatterbrained free-spirited as me!